FMWB2Y Deleted Scene
by DeliriousMess
Summary: Not quite things that were actually cut from the story, but more prompts that were specifically for my "Find My Way Back To You" story, so I decided to keep them together.
1. Chapter 1

Adelaide glanced at Duke as he sat next to Jennifer, holding her hand, as she slowly came back from a memory retrieval exercise. She was able to narrate more of it this time than she had before when she and Adelaide had first done this exercise. It had been another memory from the six months she thought she had schizophrenia; counseling, pills, desperation, things he'd only known some of, everything else he'd guessed at. He'd kept his gaze fixed on Jennifer, holding her small hand in both of his, his concern etched into his features, and watching her face.

Adelaide carefully backed out of the room, clicking her tongue gently for Little John to follow after her, and closed the door behind them. They probably didn't want an audience.

Jennifer's eyes fluttered open as she turned her head towards her right and the person holding her hand. She opened her eyes wide enough to see that it was Duke holding her hand, she smiled tiredly at him, "Hey,"

He shifted closer, still holding her hand. He moved from the chair to his knees next to the bed, to be on her level, and whispered back, "Hey yourself. How do you feel? You okay?"

She nodded, yawning, "Yeah. Yeah, I'm okay. Tired. But I guess remembering something you didn't know you forgot will do that. Or something."

Duke chuckled at her as her tone turned nervous, "Did I…did I do anything? Did I say anything?"

He shook his head, "No, I mean, you told us what you were seeing but…Adelaide told me what happened the first time. You didn't say anything like that."

She smiled tiredly at him as she nodded and yawned again, "Good. Figured that'd be a lot to throw at you at once."

He chuckled at her as he studied her, "Nah, it takes more than a girl talking in her sleep to get rid of me."

She laughed tiredly back at him, struggling to keep her eyes open. He wanted to reach out and smooth her hair away from her face or to kiss her fingers; he was desperate to do something that a year ago would be natural for them. Instead, he just squeezed her fingers, "I, uh, I should…I should _go_. You should get some sleep."

He stood to leave, but she tightened her grip on his fingers, entwining hers and his together, "No, don't…don't leave."

Duke froze, his heart leaping in his chest, as he turned back to her, daring to hope, "Do…do you want me to stay?"

She looked at their entwined fingers through half-lidded eyes, and bit her lip nervously before nodding, "Yes. Stay. Please."

Duke couldn't hide his relief and happiness, as he breathed out a laugh, "Okay. Okay, I'll stay."

She let go of his hand so that he could take off his jacket and kick off his shoes. She shifted to her left, towards the other side of the bed so that he could lie next to her. Once he was settled, she asked, as an unknown courage took her, if it would be okay to rest her head on his chest. He nodded eagerly, "Yeah. Yeah, that's fine."

She did, curling against him slightly and closing her eyes, as she let her hand find his on his stomach. He covered her hand with his and held it there, running his thumb against her fingers.

He wrapped his left arm around her shoulders to rest his hand on her head, "Is this okay?"

She nodded tiredly against his chest, "That feels nice."

Duke smiled slightly down at her as she said, shifting her head so her face was directed towards him, "You can play with my hair if you want; that usually knocks me right out."

Duke let out another breath of a laugh, "I can do that."

As he ran his fingers through her hair, earning contented noises from Jennifer, Duke tried to figure out some way of convincing himself that this was real, that this was happening. This was all so much. So much of her. But that was the strange thing; it felt like too much and not enough all at once. He wanted all of her right that second, but he also wanted this moment of just barely having her at all to stretch into eternity.

She shifted slightly against him, making him pause in his thoughts and in playing with her hair. He waited for her to give him a sign that she was okay, only for her to nuzzle slightly into his chest; just like she used to on the Rouge when he'd play with her hair and then stop for whatever reason. He'd forgotten, or more accurately he'd forced himself to forget, what her body felt next to his, what her skin felt like under his fingertips, even how soft her hair was. Jennifer wasn't the only one remembering things.

"Stars," she mumbled into his chest.

"Hm?" he said gently, slowing his hand in her hair but not stopping.

"You told me I have stars on my skin," she yawned back, "You…you drew constellations on me."

"Y-yeah. Yeah I did." Duke stammered out.

"Did they go away?" she asked quietly.

She sounded like she was on the verge of slipping into sleep, so Duke felt confident enough to risk placing a kiss on top of her head, "Of course not. I told you; They won't go away, _I'll_ remember them."


	2. Chapter 2

Prompt: But what if Duke and Jennifer are getting together and being two awkward ducks and making out and she goes to Rouge very often and spend nights there but she still doesn't have her memories back and then one day she just starts playing around with Duke's phone and then she finds their pictures?

A few weeks had passed since Duke and Jennifer had had their first "not date" at the café, and Jennifer was remembering more and more.

The exercises she was doing with Adelaide did plenty to undo her memories of the first part of the year after he "sailing accident;" all being revealed in an orderly progression, one at a time. As they progressed, though, Adelaide's role in her life in her memories was slowly fading, leaving her own after-image there.

Her memories of Duke, though, were scattered and came only if she was in some sort of secret, perfect storm of a situation that would kick up her memories of him so that they were brought to her attention.

So far, she remembered small moments of intimacy; she remembered promises and secret touches with quiet words whispered. She remembered enough, however, and _knew_ enough, that she wanted to be with him.

Even if she didn't really know why.

They'd started to spend more time on the Rouge, as well, away from prying eyes and ears.

Duke was at the stove in the kitchenette, working diligently on what he promised would be a "culinary experience."

"I think that's what Holly said just before we both got food poisoning," she replied as she leaned on the counter next to him, smiling slyly at him.

He made a face at her as he leaned towards her, "Probably because Holly lacks my culinary expertise."

She giggled at him, "Right. Well. Does this culinary expert need any help?"

"Nah, I think I can handle it," he answered, glancing briefly at her lips, before kissing her forehead, "Why don't you grab a beer from the cooler and sit down? This won't take much longer."

She closed her eyes at the kiss before smiling and nodding at him. He turned back to the stove, and she lifted the lid of the cooler on the floor by the end of the counter.

She gasped and grinned as she grabbed a bottle. As the lid fell closed she held the bottle up to him, still grinning, "This is my _favorite_ beer! How did—?"

The question died on her lips. Duke's posture tensed as she breathed out a quiet, "Oh."

Duke sighed and turned to her, trying to smile, "Just, uh, just a lucky guess, I suppose."

She nodded as she opened the bottle and drank from it. She glanced around the stateroom briefly, fidgeting, before going to sit on the couch. Duke sighed again, as he turned back to the stove and turned the heat down on it. Just one. All he wanted was one dinner with her where they weren't constantly reminded that he remembered more than she did. He went to work setting the table, trying to focus on the work and not the way she kept adjusting how she sat, suddenly uncomfortable in the one place he wanted her to be happy.

Jennifer pulled at her shirt as she shifted slightly on the couch, before spying his phone on the table. She picked it up and held up for Duke to see, "S'okay if I look at your phone?"

Duke shrugged, "Sure. I don't know why you'd care; nothing really on there of much importance."

Jennifer just chuckled at him. She skimmed his messages, mostly from people she assumed were from his hometown, some from whom she assumed were business associates (though she did wonder how good of a business man he was if he kept his "below board" exchanges just on his phone for anyone to see). She closed out of those, before opening up his photos and feeling as if the breath had been knocked out of her.

There were pictures of her.

Nothing strange or like one would see in a horror movie, there were no pictures of her through bushes or through bedroom windows; in every picture she was looking at whoever was taking the picture and smiling at them.

She looked so _happy_.

There were pictures of her and then there were pictures of her with Duke. There was a series of pictures of them in a park of some kind. The first was of him kissing her cheek, smiling into it, while she scrunched her nose at the camera. After that, there was one of her holding his face and returning the kiss even making a similar face at the camera, before she came to the last one in the series. When she did, she let out a quiet, pained sound.

The last picture was of them kissing each other, and it looked like something out of a Romantic Comedy; he had his free hand under her chin, as if he'd tilted her face up before the picture had been taken. His features were so soft, and so relaxed as he kissed her, like every single wrong thing that'd happened in his life was forgiven just because of this kiss.

She studied herself. She was smiling into the kiss and her shoulders were hunched towards him, a position she often assumed when she was really giddy about something.

"Jennifer?" Duke said, glancing at her, only to stop and stare at her, his heart sinking. She was staring at his phone and there were tears in her eyes.

He rushed to her, trying to think of what she could've possibly found on the phone to look so heartbroken.

He touched her arm, "Jennifer? Hey, Short Stack, _talk_ to me. What's—?"

He saw the picture of them on his phone and understood immediately.

He made a disheartened noise in the back of throat as he sank into the couch next to her. The _pictures._ How could he be so neglectful?

She barely tilted her at the sound of his voice, unable to look away from the picture. She looked…she looked _ecstatic_ ; she looked like she was so ready and so willing to _be_ there.

Why couldn't she _remember_ this moment?

For everything else she remembered, for all her fading memories of her "cousin," for all that other _bullshit_ , she couldn't remember _this_. _This_ was what mattered, the way he was so _relaxed_ with her, the way she looked so goddamned excited just to be _next_ to him.

She looked up at him as she started to cry, a panic setting into her gut, "Why can't I _remember_ this?"

He moved to cup her face, "Jennifer—,"

"No." She said, pulling away slightly, "No, don't _tell_ me it's going to be _okay_ , Duke. _This_ —," she held the phone up to him, "—this isn't okay. I'm not— _You're_ not—,"

She was starting to shake, her voice was quaking, and it was getting hard to breathe. It was a panic attack. She remembered them from when her dad died, but she could trust that?

She knew that one way to stop a panic was to hold her breath, but she could barely breathe normally, how she was supposed to control it long enough to _stop_ it?

Duke grabbed her face and kissed her. She froze for a moment, but Duke didn't pull away, he kept kissing her, willing her to calm down. Finally, she kissed him back, even moving to be closer to him as the phone fell from her grasp and his arms circled around her to hold her in place.

He ran his fingers through her hair, and she wrapped her arms around his neck before they pulled apart. She pressed her forehead against his and closed her eyes, just focusing on the contact.

He rubbed her back, "Jennifer."

She tilted her head slightly against his, squeezing her eyes closed.

He nuzzled his nose against her, and said her name again, more quietly, "Jennifer."

"Just…" she whispered back, keeping her eyes closed, "just call me 'Short Stack.' Please."

He smiled and kissed her lips lightly, "Okay. _Short Stack_. Would you please look at me?"

She finally did, studying what she could see of his face. He was studying her back, eyes half lidded, before he spoke, "I know you're frustrated."

She laughed half-heartedly, "To put it mildly."

He smiled back, "I _know_ , Sweetheart. But it's coming back. It's all coming back, we just…"

She sighed, "We have to give it time."

"Mm-hm." He contended. He nuzzled her again, "And lucky for us, we have a _lot_ of that."

She closed her eyes again, and relaxed more into him.

He kissed her lightly, "You know, I worked _really_ hard on that dinner."

She laughed lightly back, "Just a minute more please."

"I can do that." He said back, shifting her slightly so that she was on his lap.

They stayed that way, just content in the contact between them. Then, very quietly she asked, "Could you…could you tell me about the…about the pictures? About what was happening?"

He sighed, pulling back to look at her. She bit lip nervously, waiting for him to answer. Finally, he kissed her cheek, "Yeah. Anything for you."

She twisted so that she was sitting on his lap with her back against him as he grabbed the phone and pulled the pictures back up, "This was from our first real date…"


	3. Chapter 3

Prompt: Dukifer + FMWB2Y!Verse + feeling each other's touch for the very first time in a very long time

Jennifer sat on her bed opposite Duke who looked like he was going to jump out of his skin at even the slightest sudden movement. They were both wearing tank tops, but she was wearing shorts while he was wearing sweatpants. They both had their legs crossed like school kids in front of their teacher. This had been her idea; they were both aware of how profound his touch and influence had been on her, but he'd been so careful about putting limits on himself. He wouldn't touch any part of her that wasn't covered in some sort of clothing except her hands.

"I just want to see what will happen if…if we tried something a little _less_ Puritan."

He'd tried to laugh at her, "Thinking something in a Victorian then?"

She'd grinned slyly at him, "Let's not get _crazy_ ; I wouldn't want you to be driven _mad_ every time you saw my ankles."

Back in her room, after he'd finally agreed to give her idea a try, Duke was looking her over, eyes trailing over the exposed parts of her skin. He looked like he couldn't believe what he was seeing, but also like he couldn't see enough.

She tried to smile at him, shifting slightly on the bed, "You gonna be okay?"

"Hm?" he asked, finally looking her in the eyes, "Oh. Uh, yeah. Yeah I'm…I'm okay."

She tilted her head as she studied him, "We don't _have_ to do this; it was just an idea."

He shook his head, "No, really, I'm fine. It's just…it's been awhile since I've seen…well since I've seen _you_ like this. I guess I'd forgotten how…"

He let the thought end there as he shifted as well across from her and cleared his throat nervously, "Wh…where should I…?"

She held her hands out to him, "Want to start somewhere easy?"

Duke smirked, "You think holding my hand is going to help you remember? 'Cause I _think_ if hand holding was going to make you remember, don't you think you'd've remembered _more_ by now?"

She squinted her eyes at him, "Who's psyche are we exploring here?"

He let out a quiet chuckle as he carefully laid his palms on hers. She let her fingers curl under his wrist, against the sensitive skin there, and he smiled at how lightly she was touching him. She turned her palms against his so that her fingers were pressed against his. He looked at her hand against his; the tips of her fingers barely made it to past the second crease of his. If he tried to curl his fingers, they'd only bend over the top of hers. He twisted the palm of his left hand so that he could entwine their fingers together. His fingers had always seemed to wrap over hers, always seemed to protect hers.

He looked back to her, checking to make sure she was still okay.

She gave him a reassuring smile, "It's _okay_ , Duke."

He nodded, "Just…just tell me if…if you _remember_ something or want me to _stop_ and we can—,"

"Duke." She said firmly.

He pulled his lips into his mouth, forming it into a line, as he sighed through his nose and waited for her to continue.

She just gave him a reassuring smile, "Sh."

He let out a breath of a laugh as he stroked her thumb with his and nodded at her. She scooted closer to him across the bed so that their knees were pressing against each other. He ran his right hand up her arm slowly, her fingers curling at his elbow; God had she always been this _soft_?

"You know," he said softly, as his fingers traced her collarbone lightly and she closed her eyes at the touch. She moved her hand up to his shoulder, "when…when I first thought you were dead I…I couldn't sleep for…"

He smiled sadly at her, as he moved his hand to her neck and into her hair. It was so much _longer_ than before, but it was still soft and the curls there still seemed to twine themselves around his fingers as he ran them through it. "I'm, uh, I'm used to saying, 'for weeks' to make it seem like it wasn't as big a deal, but it _wasn't_ weeks; I couldn't sleep for _months_."

She leaned into his hand, brows knitting slightly in concern and eyes still closed, and moved her own down his arm. Oh gods her _hands_. She always touched him so lightly, her fingers skittering across his skin as if she couldn't touch enough of him at once. He let his thumb stroke her cheekbone as she moved her hand so that it was over his and she pressed it more firmly against the side of her face.

She bowed her head slightly and he pressed his forehead to hers, "We were only together for a short time but it…you came and it was if you filled in all these places that I didn't know were missing or even empty, you know?"

"Mm." It was such a quiet, sweet sound, Duke thought he'd break apart right there.

"You came and you lit everything up and you…I couldn't sleep without you next to me." He squeezed her fingers.

She opened her eyes and moved her hands from his and held his face, she smiled at him, "You snore when you drink red wine."

He pulled his head back in surprise, but not far enough away that her hands weren't still on his face, and looked at her with wide eyes.

"You…" She closed her eyes for a moment, brow furrowing in concentration, before continuing, "I tossed and turned a lot in my sleep—I think I hit you a couple of times—so you would…you would wrap your arms around my waist and hold me to you."

She opened her eyes and stroked his face, "I never told you that I knew when you would do that. I never told you that that was the only way everything about me would…would calm down and get quiet enough that I could sleep. It was safe there."

He stared at her for a moment before saying quietly, "No. You never told me. I…"

"But I've told you now." She said gently, moving her hands to the back of his neck, "I got a second chance, _we_ got a second chance. I know there are things I wanted to tell you but I…I just can't remem—,"

He kissed her, interrupting her, and pulled her close. When he pulled back he placed his hand on the back of her head so that she stayed close and pressed their foreheads together. He gave her a small smile, full of warmth and hope, "It's okay. We…we have time."

He nuzzled his nose against hers, "We have a second chance."


	4. Chapter 4

Prompt: Dukifer + Little John is coming to live with us!

"So how goes the packing, Short Stack?" Duke asked as they boarded the Rouge. Jennifer had recovered most of her memories from pre- and post-Haven, but there were still some gaps.

Duke was just glad, however, that she knew that she wanted to be back on the Rouge with him. They'd decided to finally go "Somewhere Sunny," at least for awhile, to let what was left of her memories come back as they would. The packing process, however, was turning into an adventure in and of itself.

She sighed, "Slow. Mostly because every few minutes Brielle comes back into my room and makes me _swear_ that I won't forget her while we're gone."

He smiled at her, "She's gonna miss her Auntie, huh?"

Jennifer smiled back, sighing out a laugh, "Oh yeah. And a great deal, apparently."

As they walked down into the stateroom, she sighed again and dropped down onto the couch, " _But_ at least with Little John there, the transition–"

"Whoa, wait, what?" Duke interrupted, as he grabbed them something to drink.

She looked at him, confused by his surprise, "Well, yeah. You didn't think I'd bring Little John with us, did you?"

He sat next to her and handed her a drink. He furrowed his brow at her, "Do you not _want_ to bring him along?"

"Of _course_ I want to bring him," she replied as she pulled her legs up under her on the cushion and curled into his side. He placed his hand on her thigh, rubbing it with his thumb as she continued, "But, Duke, the Rouge is a bit cramped for a dog his size, and he needs at _least_ thirty minutes of physical activity to stay healthy, and what if one day we're on the deck tossing his ball around and it goes over the edge and he follows after it and then that's it, there goes my sweet boy and I can't–"

" _Jennifer_."

He said her name gently, squeezing her leg and getting her to breathe and look at him.

"You realize we're not going to be spending that much time out in the open ocean, right?" At the slight blush that sprang up in her cheeks, he smiled, "He'll have plenty of time and space to run around. He'll be _fine_."

She bit her lip nervously, "Are you…are you sure you're _okay_ with him–?"

"Of course I am." He interrupted, moving his hand from her thigh to wrap his arm around her shoulders and pull her closer to him, "Sweetheart, you love that dog, and he loves you about as much as I do. And I know that being apart from him that long won't do you any good."

She smiled at him before kissing him lightly on the lips, "Thank you."

He smiled, pressing his forehead to hers, "Besides, we've come a _long_ way since he first tackled me."

She laughed.


End file.
